Posted on 03/30/2025 2:33:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Anchovies are again invading the Santa Cruz Harbor for the second time in just months and this time, harbor leaders don’t have a key piece of equipment to combat the problem because that equipment is in the shop for routine maintenance.
“It's totally unseasonal for these fish to be here this time of year,” said assistant harbormaster Sean Rothwell.
Advertisement The fish bait started appearing in large numbers a couple of weeks ago and usually, when the anchovies show up in droves the harbor turns on its aerators to pump oxygen into the water, but they were taken out of the water for seasonal maintenance.
“We ran those for seven months last year, and every year we have to take them out and do regular maintenance on them, so we plan that around the off-season, the wintertime, the cooler temperatures when it's not likely to be needed,” Rothwell said.
Lake San Antonio fish die-off.Lake San Antonio to reopen this week after large fish die-off The hope is they won’t be needed this go around.
“So if we start getting closer to the danger levels of oxygen, we may be able to do something about that and get the pumps in quicker, but right now, it's really not calling for it,” Rothwell said.
That's because oxygen readings appear to be okay in large part because of the cooler temperatures and heavy tidal movements in and out of the harbor, plus, the anchovies show no immediate signs of stress.
“They'll be kind of frantically jumping around, and we're not seeing that type of stress on the fish right now, and I think that has a lot to do with just the cooler temperatures and the decent levels of oxygen in the water,” Rothwell said.
Some anchovies have already started dying off, but not in the large numbers that were seen back in October, which resulted in a huge clean-up effort.
For now, harbor leaders are closely monitoring the situation and routinely checking the oxygen levels in the harbor water, but the hope is that the anchovies will simply move onto deeper water.
Quick, make a whole bunch of pizzas…
With all the protected seals on the docks etc, I’d think this would be an anchovy smorgasbord for them
“No anchovies? you’ve got the wrong number pal, I spell my name Danger”
I don’t think anchovies are big enough for a seal to bother with
The seals are on SNAP and anchovies are not on the approved list.
lol
Wandering leaderless and out of season...these anchovies must be the Democrats of the Sea.
Hope they don’t try to as-salt any Herring. Trump could treble the hook and tariffs on lutefisk. No lye.
Sorry, I got hooked on the headline and now I”m being sardinecastic.
Has anybody asked what is causing this?
Don’t tell me man caused-climate change!
Perhaps this is common throughout history?
and we are artificially trying to support
fish through a normal Darwin natural selection
episode thus making it worse?
Which natural predators are ignoring these fish?
Salmon, Halibut, Sharks, et al?
Anchovies are again invading the Santa Cruz Harbor for the second time in just months and this time, harbor leaders don’t have a key piece of equipment to combat the problem because that equipment is in the shop for routine maintenance.
“It’s totally unseasonal for these fish to be here this time of year,” said assistant harbormaster Sean Rothwell.
Libtards... look out over Santa Cruz Harbor and think it’s up to them to decide what fish decide to swim there, in what numbers, on what dates.
Whales are a lot bigger than seals, and they eat krill, which is much smaller than anchovies.
Hahahahaha...interesting!
I can throw together a poem or a limerick at the drop of a hat, but...I have no aptitude for this, but I enjoy seeing it!
My very first college job was delivering pizzas for an Italian family owned independent place on the city border inside Detroit on 8 Mile Road. (The one in the Eminem movie). The mother of the owner made the homemade sauce, put it in jars and I went to the house daily to bring more back.
I was later told that was illegal (made off premises).
Try finding those independent places today.
Got the job because the guy before me quit when he was held up at knifepoint one night. Opportunity.
We had a little sign next to the order phone:
Yes. Yes. We know. Hold the anchovies.
“They’ll be kind of frantically jumping around, and we’re not seeing that type of stress on the fish right now, and I think that has a lot to do with just the cooler temperatures and the decent levels of oxygen in the water,” Rothwell said.
“It’s totally unseasonal for these fish to be here this time of year,”
Gnarly, dude.
Tax the anchovies!
How many times were you held at knifepoint?
“Quick, make a whole bunch of pizzas…”
I remember once with a group of people when I ordered anchovies on one of the pizzas. I figured that I’d have it all to myself with leftovers.
I was wrong, it was gobbled up first.
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